Introspective Life

What causes you to fall off the wagon?

Written By: Jim - Feb• 18•12

For me, completion of what I start has always been an issue. I start amazing projects, do about 75% of the work and then stop. Over the years, I have noticed a few things that demotivate me while working on projects:

Lack of Time
Lack of Energy
Lack of Desire

Lack of time happens when you fail to manage your time properly. You can’t set a goal that you will be productive for 26 hours a day. Whenever I start something new, if it is going to last, it needs to initially be a low time commitment. No more than 30 minutes a day at first. I have found that after the first week of doing something, if you are trying to do it for more than 30 minutes, life happens and one day you need to steal time away from it. The moment you deprioritize or delay your project, the more likely it is to never be picked back up. You lose your focus and momentum. It also takes more force of will to pick a project back up after you have deprioritized it.

Lack of energy happens when you fail by trying to do too much and sacrifice other important areas of your life too much to obtain something. You have to be balanced in life. Your body needs 5-8 hours of sleep a night depending on your needs. You require a few hours of social interaction a day (more if you are in a relationship). You should eat between 3-5 small meals a day. When you pull from one of these areas in order to complete your project, you risk running out of energy. Just like you can’t run a car without gasoline, you won’t be able to do the things you desire to do without the fuel to perform them. Instead of cutting out the important things in life, consider cutting back the nonessentials such as watching TV, trolling Facebook and Reddit, playing Xbox. These things are not bad in moderation, but holding onto them while cutting out other important things is not a wise course of action.

Lack of desire comes from working on goals and plans that aren’t your goals and plans. You should never pursue something you don’t like or want. I think this is why so many people have quarter and mid-life crises. People spend their lives living out other peoples’ hopes and dreams. In order to truly achieve something, YOU; not your spouse, parents, friends, pastors, teachers, etc. have to want to do it. I’m not saying to ignore advice or consultation from these people, but if you know you are on the path that you want to be on then continue, despite opposition. If these people truly care about you, they will be happier if you achieve what you want to achieve in the long run. When you lack the desire to do something, you will find that it is very easy to lack the time or energy to complete it.

Make your life your own,

Jim

Posted in General, Intellectual, Relationships and Family | No Comments »

My New Year’s Resolution – Mini-goals!

Written By: Jim - Feb• 02•12

“This year is going to be different. It is going to be my best year ever,” I said to myself as the clock struck midnight on January 1^st of this year. “I want to remember 2012 as the end of my previous world and the beginning of a new one.” So many previous years, I have had goals that I have set and failed. My entire life up to this point, with very few exceptions, has been one series of failed commitments after another.

This year, has been different so far. I have a completely new set of principles for pursuing my goals. Rather than make large lofty goals, I am setting a series of small 21 day improvement goals. Basically, I pick out a behavior that I would like to adopt or try in my life and pursue it for 21 days. At the end of 21 days, I can decide whether or not to continue this habit and adopt it as a routine. In this year alone, I will try out 17 little life changes. Can you imagine how different my life will be, if I make 17 changes to it in a year?

For my first habit of the year, I chose early rising. For 21 days, with the exception of one day where I was sick, I woke up early. It started at 6:00 AM, then bumped back to 5:30 AM, and now I get up most days by 5:00 AM. The first week was extremely hard. For those of you who know me well, you will know that I have long been a night owl. As an adult, 6:00 AM had always been closer to bed time, then morning for me. Its not like that anymore. Fueled by a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, I am up and ready to face the world every day now. At the end of my 21 days, I had come to love my mornings. I decided to keep my early rising as a permanent habit.

In just 3 weeks, I noticed a large increase in my productivity. My mood has improved. I find myself having more confidence to keep commitments that I have made. The small success of being able to follow through with a mini-goal has been a real boon to me.

I want to challenge you to do the same and make mini-goals. It doesn’t have to be waking up early. It may be to exercise every day. (That is my current goal.) Or maybe your goal is to only watch one hour of TV a day. Who knows? Give it a try. Over the next few posts, I will discuss where this idea came from, what has inspired me to try it, and the ways I stayed motivated.

Make your life great,

Jim

Posted in Physical | No Comments »

A New Face for an Old Site

Written By: Jim - Jan• 23•12

Over the past few years, I have had quite a few ideas for where I wanted this site to go. The site was originally intended as a place for me to philosophize about life and habits of the mind. After a few months, the site devolved into a more personal journal about my crisis of faith. Roughly this time last year, I utterly failed at my resolution to update the blog everyday. Late last year, the blog became a catch-all for anything and everything I was doing.

I like this approach because I feel that an introspective life needs to be a balanced life. I wanted to have a place to share my ideas with interested parties around the world. The problem was that at the time I came to this idea, I had not actually determined what makes up a balanced life. I still have not arrived 100% but I feel that I have a better idea now than I did last year. Because of this, I feel that the blog needs a new feel. I have hidden my old posts off of the main page. They are still on the site under the “Old Posts” category. Some of the posts are quite good in my opinion, but most are poorly written. They are included for your viewing pleasure. The old posts will hopefully also show how I have changed since they were written.

I am not going to promise a post everyday, but I hope that the quality of what I will write will be helpful or interesting to you.

Have a fantastic day,

Jim

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